Luke Owain Boult speaks to Hugo Spowers, the founder of Riversimple about the Rasa and the future of cars.
What was the motivation behind creating the ‘Rasa’?
We want to offer customers the first affordable, hassle free, fun-to-drive, eco car. Our road-legal prototype, the ‘Rasa’, is believed to be the most efficient car in the world designed for ordinary road use and has no tailpipe emissions – only water.
Why was Llandrindod Wells chosen as the location?
Wales is the only country to have sustainability written into its statute, so it was an obvious choice for us. The Welsh Government is both supportive and receptive to emerging technology and new business and kindly awarded us a £2 million grant in 2015. Llandrindod Wells has a great history of automotive entrepreneurship – the first Austins and Fords were sold here and the first bus company in Wales was run from the town in the early 1900’.
What do you feel are the most pressing environmental issues today?
Carbon dioxide pollution is still the dominant issue as its effect is global and irreversible.
We would like to see a reduction in harmful emissions, not only from vehicle tailpipes, but also from tyres and brakes, which have a massive impact on health, with particulates and other pollutants linked to causing 40,000 early deaths a year. The Rasa has been designed to minimise all such emissions.
What is Riversimple working on at the moment?
After raising over £1m in our first crowdfunding round, which finished in April, we are now planning the build of cars to take part in our beta-test in Monmouthshire later this year. We are also working on further refinements to the two-seater ‘Rasa’.
In partnership with two different consortia, we are refining hydrogen components and testing carbon-fibre partly made from flax.
What is Riversimple’s mission?
Our purpose is ‘to pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport’. Everything we do – the design of the car, the structure of the business, the people we work with – is in pursuit of this goal.
What influenced the design of the Rasa?
We began with a hydrogen fuel cell, a manifesto for sustainable design and a blank sheet of paper. Every aspect of the Rasa has been created and interrogated for simplicity, efficiency, lightness, strength, affordability, safety and sustainability. And the name Rasa is a nod to that blank sheet of paper – Tabula Rasa means ‘Clean slate’ in Latin.
The car weighs just 580kg and is incredibly aerodynamic. Refuelling takes just three minutes, and gives the car a 300 mile range. The Rasa is the result of 15 years of technological development and was styled by Chris Reitz, who also designed the FIAT 500.
What do you think the automotive industry will look like in 20 years’ time?
The UK Government predicts that there will be more than 1.3 million fuel cell vehicles on the roads by 2030, and Riversimple wants to play a big part of this, ensuring that its clean vehicles are affordable and attractive to consumers interested in sustainable transport. Hydrogen refuelling stations are already beginning to appear across the country.
As we are big advocates of open source technology, in 20 years we hope to have more collaborators and partners, who will help to bring hydrogen fuel and electric fuel-cell vehicles into more mainstream use.
Info: www.riversimple.com